The Sacramento Kings, after promising DeMarcus Cousins privately and publicly that he wouldn’t be moved prior to Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, agreed to trade the center to the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night, league sources told The Vertical.

The Pelicans are sending guards Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans and Langston Galloway, and 2017 first- and second-round picks to the Kings as part of the deal, league sources said, with forward Omri Casspi going to New Orleans.

The Kings were at significant risk of losing a 2017 top-10 protected pick to Chicago, and the trade now increases the chances they can hold on to it.

That's a steal for the Pelicans, though the Kings being able to hold onto that pick would be a saving grace. Of course, that means the Bulls lose again, and this time they weren't even involved in the deal. Thank you, GarPax!

Anyway, Cousins' attitude has been a concern for some time now, and things haven't really improved on that front. To that end, I can see why the Kings would be open to pulling the plug and just ridding themselves of him before they have to sign him to a big contract. However, as Woj noted on Twitter, the fact that they publicly and privately promised not to trade Cousins could very well hurt their standing with agents and players in the future. What goes around comes around, as they say.

I have been eager to see how Cousins' fate would pan out. So it seems here it is...

This trade seems to have thinned out NO backcourt, but Davis+Cousins, is this the return of tall ball? In SacTown, they seemed now to be geared to play small ball, especially if they keep Tyreke at 3 and switch gay to 4 for longer stretches.

Dang. I think that's a pretty raw example of the humanity behind the millions of dollars, endorsements, and the business side of basketball. He may be a knucklehead at times, but he handled that like a pro. Kudos.

[Q] wrote:The kings are a joke. This was after saying they wouldn't trade him. They have no clue how to run an NBA team

I'd say the Pelicans got a steal in just up Galloway which there gonna waive, Evans is pretty much done after so many injuries and Buddy is only a rookie but on the flip side they don't have to deal with Cousins and they don't have to pay him.

Kings definetely wanted him out, despite Divac publicly saying there was no way a trade involving DMC would pull off. At the end of the day, they had to accept the best offer, which I am pretty sure was this one. That is a consequence of DMC's agent telling the Celtics the chances of him resigning with the team after the trade were around 0-5%. No NBA team will risk their core or their future to acquire a player he has openly told his agent he won't resign with any team who trades for him.

The 76ers were apparently offering them a similar deal to the one they accepted from the Pelicans, involving Jahlil Okafor. It sounds like the Kings just wanted to be rid of Boogie by any means necessary.

The last blockbuster of mid-season I remember since this was Carmelo Anthony's trade, which was expected since the acquisition of Amar'e by the Knicks. Carmelo wanted to be home again. But this trade was so unlikely that Celtics were expected to acquire Cousins.

Axel wrote:Its their choice to waste time and money watching an inept franchise. No sympathy from me.

Sacramento fans are close enough to the Bay Area they should just get on the Warriors bandwagon.

That's pretty cold hearted post. No fan wants their team to be an embarrassment like this... paying or not

During opening introductions, Jordan Bell made curious gestures with his hands, which he admitted after the game were meant to symbolize rubbing money together. "I wanted to see how cash considerations was doing over there," Bell said.

makes you think what kind of deal **insert your favorite team here** could have gotten

hear sacto would have done the deal if they included ingrram... allegedly

During opening introductions, Jordan Bell made curious gestures with his hands, which he admitted after the game were meant to symbolize rubbing money together. "I wanted to see how cash considerations was doing over there," Bell said.

I think Divac would have gotten more dealing with other teams. He probably was willing to overpay for potential, which is actually a logical thing to do for purpose of rebuilding. Only real asset Kings got in return is Pelicans' first round pick, and a Buddy Hield(more likely a bust than star at this point).

I think there were more than 5 teams that could have made a gamble on Cousins. Makes me wonder if Divac made enough calls to other teams.

People are already calling it a bad trade for Sacramento, I think I will take a wait and see approach here. Sacramento did dump some salary, got Buddy Hield, who might be limited on upside, but looks like he will have an average but productive career. Then there is the draft pick from the Pelicans that is shaping to be lottery bound, which is a wild card. I think 3-5 yrs is a good amount of time to judge whether a trade is good or not.

Bruce wrote:I think there were more than 5 teams that could have made a gamble on Cousins. Makes me wonder if Divac made enough calls to other teams.

People are already calling it a bad trade for Sacramento, I think I will take a wait and see approach here. Sacramento did dump some salary, got Buddy Hield, who might be limited on upside, but looks like he will have an average but productive career. Then there is the draft pick from the Pelicans that is shaping to be lottery bound, which is a wild card. I think 3-5 yrs is a good amount of time to judge whether a trade is good or not.

how is it shaping to be lottery bound? pelicans are going for the playoffs. only 2 games out of the winning column from denver

so hield's supposed average potential, some salary relief, and a possible lottery or mid round 1st pick > cousins?????? c'mon.

cousins has hit more 3's than hield.

During opening introductions, Jordan Bell made curious gestures with his hands, which he admitted after the game were meant to symbolize rubbing money together. "I wanted to see how cash considerations was doing over there," Bell said.

If they don't feel like Cousins is coachable and hurts the team more than helps... Any value for him is good.

Anyway, Cousins this season so far:

34 minutes per game

505/1118 from the field (45.2 %)

95/207 from 3 pt (35.6 %)

423/549 from free throw line (77 %)

584 rebounds

266 assists

207 turnovers (!) - quite a lot for a big man if you ask me

75 steals

73 blocks

203 personal fouls (3.56 per game)

also 34 double doubles and 2 triple doubles

his +/- is -32

And Buddy Hield:

20 minutes per game - 14 less than Cousins

185/472 from the field (39.2 %) - 6 % lower than Cousins

89/241 from 3 pt (36.9 %) - 1.3 % higher than Cousins, as for your argument it's whole 6 threes less than Cousins in 700+ less minutes on the floor

29/33 from free throw line (87.9 %) - 10.9 % higher than Cousins, but of course much less shooting

165 rebounds

77 assists

48 turnovers

18 steals

7 blocks

81 personal fouls (1.47 per game)

no double or triple doubles

his +/- is -150

Now the question is how Hield will fit into Kings' rotation and culture. How well he can be coached.

Also worth noting is that Cousins currently leads the league in technical fouls - 19 techs so far. Second are tied DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard with 14. out of that he was ejected 2 times (tied second in league with several other players, first is Carmelo Anthony with 3 ejections).Buddy Hield has no techs, although he was ejected once as he was hit with flagrant two foul - actually when he hit Cousins in the groin.

Finally to be fair to Hield, Cousins' rookie season wasn't all that superb either - virtually no 3 pt shooting (actually that holds true until 2014-15 season), even lower free throw shooting, 268 turnovers and +/- of whopping -534.

Dommy,Cousins wasnt forcing his way out. He in fact started publicly he wanted to resign. Divac also revealed there were better offers on the tables previously. This deal even gets vetoed in fantasy basketball lol

What argument are you making with those stats? Cousins impact on on the court clearly bests hields

What NBA level skills has hield shown so far aside from hitting s 3pt shot and sinking the occasional ft?!

Aside from the 1st pick,Evans and whoever are just salary filler and afterthoughts

During opening introductions, Jordan Bell made curious gestures with his hands, which he admitted after the game were meant to symbolize rubbing money together. "I wanted to see how cash considerations was doing over there," Bell said.

big-shot-ROB wrote:No NBA team will risk their core or their future to acquire a player he has openly told his agent he won't resign with any team who trades for him.

Unless they have LeBron.

I thought we would leave GM's out of this.

air gordon wrote:Dommy,Cousins wasnt forcing his way out. He in fact started publicly he wanted to resign. Divac also revealed there were better offers on the tables previously. This deal even gets vetoed in fantasy basketball lol

What argument are you making with those stats? Cousins impact on on the court clearly bests hields

What NBA level skills has hield shown so far aside from hitting s 3pt shot and sinking the occasional ft?!

Aside from the 1st pick,Evans and whoever are just salary filler and afterthoughts

I am on your side with this. That was a possibly the worst deal they could've gotten for Cousins. Hield, a bunch of salary fillers and a "not-so-bound" lottery pick. Sure any team would have given possibly a better draft pick or a player whose range of potential can be wider, meaning potentially being a better player than Hield's ceiling, ex: Rozier.

That's important to remember. Few people are cartoonish villains 24/7, and people with bad habits aren't necessarily bad people. Off the court, Cousins seems like a pretty good person, and on the court, he can do some pretty good things, too.

Of course, the flip side of what Harper notes there is that for every heartwarming story about him and the community, there's a bad locker room story, and that's obviously a problem. Since the Kings are a professional basketball team and trying to win basketball games is their business, it's understandable that they'd make a tough decision and trade him away. Cousins is very talented, clearly good for the community, and it would be unfair to paint him as a terrible person just because he has a few faults. But he does have issues with his temper and judgement, and it's questionable as to whether he's truly a franchise player because of that. Committing to building around him for the foreseeable future, to the tune of $200 million no less, is something you have to think long and hard about.

That being said, it's not much of a deal. They could, and should, have gotten more for him. I also go back to what Woj pointed out about the way they handled it: promising that they'd keep him, publicly and privately, and then going back on that. It's bad form, and while there's a business side to the sport, there's also good and bad ways to do that business. Why should any agents and prospective free agents buy what the Kings try to sell them in the future? Even if you understand and don't disagree with their decision, if you're a free agent they're recruiting, you're probably going to be wary of how they'll end up treating you, and how honest they'll be in their dealings.

Adrian Wojnarowski on DeMarcus Cousins trade: Once (the Kings front office) they got Vivek on board, they didn’t want him to change his mind again. That was part of the reason they rushed on Sunday to get the deal done.

air gordon wrote:Dommy,Cousins wasnt forcing his way out. He in fact started publicly he wanted to resign. Divac also revealed there were better offers on the tables previously. This deal even gets vetoed in fantasy basketball lol

What argument are you making with those stats? Cousins impact on on the court clearly bests hields

What NBA level skills has hield shown so far aside from hitting s 3pt shot and sinking the occasional ft?!

Aside from the 1st pick,Evans and whoever are just salary filler and afterthoughts

I am on your side with this. That was a possibly the worst deal they could've gotten for Cousins. Hield, a bunch of salary fillers and a "not-so-bound" lottery pick. Sure any team would have given possibly a better draft pick or a player whose range of potential can be wider, meaning potentially being a better player than Hield's ceiling, ex: Rozier.

You guys are right. Cousins' perceived value is higher than whatever the crap Kings got in return.

Management probably just wanted to get it over with. Cousins was a headache and the team was heading nowhere. Divac's statement about "Winning begins with culture and personal matters" is an indication imho.

But here is where it gets even uglier for the Kings. According to several NBA insiders, including Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, the Kings lied to Cousins' agents about wanting to trade him, and NBA agents are not happy.

"We know that Vlade Divac, their GM, had been very, publicly and privately, had been pretty emphatic that they were not going to do this," Wojnaroski said on his podcast. "He came out publicly and said, 'I'm not going to trade Cousins at the deadline. He's going to be here. We want to re-sign him.' And he told that to Cousins and he told that to Cousins' agents, Jarinn Akana and Dan Fegan."

Former NBA executive Bobby Marks was a guest on the podcast with Wojnarowski and explained how dangerous this move was for the Kings, saying, "If you burn an agent in this league, they do not forget."

"You never come out and say a player is not going to get traded or 'we're going to sign this player to an extension,' because anybody in this league is tradable," Marks told Wojnarowski. "I think it can have some long-term implications here. If you look at Dan Fegan, a powerful agent. When you look at Jarinn and who he represents. When we get into free agency with Sacramento, a team that is going to possibly have some cap flexibility. When we get into the draft, we don't know yet whom they will represent, but if you burn an agent in this league, they do not forget here."

Others have seemingly confirmed this thought, noting that this deal has hurt the Kings in the eyes of many agents.

"Several agents have already told me that [Sacramento] has lost all credibility after assuring Cousins he would not be traded this year and extended," Keith Smith of FanRagSports wrote on Twitter.

It's hard to build that winning culture without talent, and hard to acquire (or hold onto) that talent if your reputation has been sullied.

Makes you wonder what if Divac traded him last year or year before. His perceived value gradually declined year by year day by day.

That makes you think, it's not like this was entirely 110% WIN for the Pelicans either. They are playing with fire that's known to burn the house down. There's also a timer that might not get reset if Cousins decides to go elsewhere after his contract expires. And, OH man, think about MAX contract that will last well over till Cousins becomes 30 something years old. That could be their demise for rest of decade and possibly next. For now this looks like an interesting experiment though.

Even if things don't pan out with Cousins, they're still going to have Anthony Davis, so even if the experiment fails and Cousins moves on, they're still in a good position as far as having a star to build around. If they'd traded Davis for Cousins, it'd be a different story, but as it stands, they don't have to pin all their hopes on Cousins.

It will be interesting though. I could see them making a solid run through the final two months of the season. They're only a few games out of the eighth spot in the West, it's not unfeasible that they sneak into the postseason if they string together a few good winning streaks.

Andrew wrote:Even if things don't pan out with Cousins, they're still going to have Anthony Davis, so even if the experiment fails and Cousins moves on, they're still in a good position as far as having a star to build around. If they'd traded Davis for Cousins, it'd be a different story, but as it stands, they don't have to pin all their hopes on Cousins.

It will be interesting though. I could see them making a solid run through the final two months of the season. They're only a few games out of the eighth spot in the West, it's not unfeasible that they sneak into the postseason if they string together a few good winning streaks.

NovU wrote:Makes you wonder what if Divac traded him last year or year before. His perceived value gradually declined year by year day by day.

That makes you think, it's not like this was entirely 110% WIN for the Pelicans either. They are playing with fire that's known to burn the house down. There's also a timer that might not get reset if Cousins decides to go elsewhere after his contract expires. And, OH man, think about MAX contract that will last well over till Cousins becomes 30 something years old. That could be their demise for rest of decade and possibly next. For now this looks like an interesting experiment though.

How do you guys think this experiment will pan out for the Pelicants?

Take it easy. Too much cliche dropping there haha

I agree it's not a for sure win but considering what they gave up and the non chance of landing a player of this talent if they stayed the course, its a great deal for them.

The experts say gentry favors a fast pace coach. Big challenge for him

During opening introductions, Jordan Bell made curious gestures with his hands, which he admitted after the game were meant to symbolize rubbing money together. "I wanted to see how cash considerations was doing over there," Bell said.

Q: Well, the pressure is on you now. It’s pretty clear that Divac, not Ranadive, is making the personnel decisions. Some people still can’t believe Ranadive actually stepped aside and allowed you to trade his favorite player.

A: That’s my job, and I take responsibility. And I totally understand why some fans would be upset. They supported DeMarcus, and I like DeMarcus a lot. But I believe we are going to be in a better position in two years. I want to hear again from these same people in two years. If I’m right, great. If I’m wrong, I’ll step down. But if I go down, I’m going down my way.

So, he's stepping down in a couple of years...if he's good to his word, of course. And seeing as how he just promised Cousins he wasn't going to be traded...

During opening introductions, Jordan Bell made curious gestures with his hands, which he admitted after the game were meant to symbolize rubbing money together. "I wanted to see how cash considerations was doing over there," Bell said.

Obviously it's easy to look like a genius in hindsight. But that is a pretty horrible strike rate.

Even the guy who did become a star player turned out to be too much trouble because of attitude problems.

Yikes. I agree, definitely a lot of misses there when you go back. Like you said, it's easy to criticise in hindsight, but even at the time, some of those picks were questionable.

Of course, Tyreke Evans was Rookie of the Year, averaging 20-5-5. As it stands, his career numbers aren't terrible or anything, but he kind of peaked in his rookie campaign, and hasn't become a star since. He originally looked like a great pick.